Lam Dong uses its strength to attract agricultural investment

Lam Dong province has approximately 300,000 hectares of agricultural production land with distinct ecological zones including elevations below 500 m, areas with elevations from 500-800 m, and areas with altitudes from 800-1,500 m.

Mr. Nguyen Van Chau, Deputy Director of Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that over the past few years, approximately 80 foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises had invested in agriculture and rural areas with a total capital of nearly US$ 267 million.

Along with FDI enterprises, over 1,400 domestic enterprises and establishments have invested in agriculture. To be more specific, 327 enterprises are investing in 393 projects related to forests and forestry land with a total area of over 56,000 hectares.

Large and small investment projects, including both domestic and FDI enterprises, have significantly contributed to the development of agriculture and rural areas, promoting the general socio-economic development of Lam Dong province.

In particular, Lam Dong has strengths in high-tech agricultural production. This province is considered at the top of the country and receives keen interest from domestic and foreign businesses. Up to now, the province's hi-tech agricultural production area is over 62,000 hectares with an average production value of VND 180 million/ha/year. Many areas of vegetables with high technology applications reach VND 400-500 million/ha/year. Flower production reaches VND 800 million to VND 1.2 billion/ha/year.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Chau, attracting investment in agriculture and rural areas, especially in high-tech agriculture, has promoted commodity-oriented production, raised agricultural product value, and increased land use value. "The attraction of investment in agriculture and rural areas in recent years has contributed to accelerating the pace of industrialization and modernization in agriculture, increasing local budget revenue, creating jobs, and effectively implementing the agricultural restructuring scheme associated with the new rural construction program".

In order to further attract investment in agriculture and rural areas, over the years Lam Dong has issued many mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses. The province implements measures to improve the business investment environment, reduce start-up costs and input costs, promote technological innovation and improve competitiveness.

Lam Dong also strengthens cooperation activities, linking socio-economic development with localities in the country to introduce and promote the potential in agricultural production to attract investment. Utilizing this form, many investors in other localities have grasped the opportunity and come to Lam Dong to survey, invest and initiate many projects.

According to Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, localities aim to build effective forms of production and service organization in rural areas to continue attracting investment in agriculture and rural areas. In which, enterprises are encouraged to invest, sign contracts to supply materials and underwrite products with farmers and cooperatives under the production - consumption linkage model through agreements.

“We aim to create a favorable environment to attract businesses to invest in agricultural product production, processing, and consumption. Especially, the province will focus on developing the processing industry and the market to exploit the potential and advantages and improve the value chain of agricultural products," said Mr. Nguyen Van Chau.

Lam Dong province encourages and prioritizes investment projects with few resources and high science and technology application content. In particular, investment in seed production and processing industry projects is focused.

For FDI enterprises, the locality also aims to select and prioritize large enterprises and corporations with real potential in capital as well as technology and markets to attract investment. Currently, Lam Dong province is coordinating with JICA to pilot the model of an Agricultural Industrial Park to attract Japanese investors to invest in production and associate with farmers in agricultural production and processing for export to the Japanese market.

Lam Dong province continues to invest in improving rural infrastructure (transportation, irrigation, etc.) to reduce production costs and create competitive advantages for agricultural products on the market, especially in world economic integration.

Lam Dong is a province with strengths in agricultural production, but the land fund to meet the needs of investors is currently limited. According to the current land use mechanism, businesses must negotiate compensation with people. In contrast, the area's agricultural land price is much higher than the national average. Along with that, the cost of compensation and site clearance for the implementation of projects also increased. These are the reasons for the slowdown in attracting investment in agriculture and rural areas in the locality, especially attracting FDI enterprises.